Five of the friends were sat at breakfast, three were not. The friends were worried sick as usually the three Hufflepuff girls were the first down. They'd gotten so worried that they'd even resorted to asking the rude Hufflepuffs who had told them that the three girls had not been seen at all since tea the previous day. Hannah, who was still suspicious of the eight friends, was getting even more so.
"Where are they?" Eloise asked in worry. Evan was the most flustered and worried for he had the second task today.
"I had a thought, but... It doesn't really work," James said. The others perked up.
"Yes?" Lucas asked. Even he was now worried.
"Well, they need to take someone to put into the lake," James said.
"Yeah but that should be one person, not all three of them," Evan cried in frustration. He'd thought James had a real solution.
"I know," James said.
"Think about it logically," Lebron said. "No one saw them after tea last night, right?"
"Right," the others confirmed.
"They were the last of us to leave the library," Lebron continued.
"Wait," Evan said. "Maybe they were trying to take one of them but the others kicked up a fuss?"
The other four sighed. That would be so like those girls, and Eloise, but she wasn't there.
"Who do you reckon they've taken for you?" Eloise asked curiously. She thought it was most likely to be Rhianna but she didn't know for sure. Evan shrugged.

After breakfast, four of of them travelled to the black lake. The group seemed to be dropping like flies. None of them had noticed that Lebron had disappeared.
"Ugh!" Evan cried. "Where did Lebron go?"
"What?" James said. "He's not here? I thought he was behind you!"
The four of them groaned collectively.
"I think..." Evan said slowly. "That Lebron is my hostage. I would've thought I'd miss other people more but... it's logical."
When the four of them arrived at the shore, no one else was there.
"I need Ella," Evan joked weakly. "She's the best at knowing what's coming. What if this stuff is from the book? What will I do then? None of us have read it!"
Eloise gasped in realisation and reached in her pocket for the paper that Rhianna had given her. She uncrumpled it and read it to the others.
Evan cried in relief, "Thank God!"
All too soon, it was time for the task.
Evan used the charm and plunged himself into the murky substance beneath him. He gasped as his bare skin touched the icy water. Using the heating spell, Jocelyn had given him, he warmed himself up and swam onwards. He marvelled at the beauty underwater. Then he spotted something moving. What was it? He moved closer (like the idiot he was :) ) and recognised it from the description Rhianna had left Eloise with. It was a grindylow. He propelled himself forwards past it. After many more close calls like that, he reached the statue that the hostages were tied to. He'd hoped to see all four of his missing friends there but much like he'd expected, it was only Lebron. He saw Harry and mouthed, "The others are coming." Rhianna had told him that this was very important although he couldn't see why.
He hacked at Lebron's bindings and grabbed him, almost laughing as the small girl lolled to the side. He shot up out of the water, swimming with Lebron in a stroke that Ella had explained to him called side-stroke. It was actually as easy as Ella had told him it would be. Lebron felt much lighter in the water that he would have been on land. Evan reached the shore first and smiled in triumph.
"How are you?" Bagman asked him when he arrived.
"Good," Evan replied.
"Hungry," Lebron said. Evan laughed in relief but then shivered, suddenly overcome with coldness. Bagman handed the two boys towels which they gratefully wrapped around themselves. They walked over to the others. Suddenly, Evan realised that there were only two over there.
"Where's Eloise?" Evan asked in worry.
"She's fine," James assured. "She just went looking for the others."
"Ok," Evan said. They smiled and waited for the results. Evan just replaced Cedric but nothing else changed.

The three Hufflepuff girls sat in the gloomy darkness, not talking but eating the stale bread that had just been given to them. Eloise was not even close to finding them.